


Black Science

by LeoArchon



Category: Portal (Video Game), RWBY
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, Walkthrough Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-04-07 01:46:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14070210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoArchon/pseuds/LeoArchon
Summary: Blake Belladonna is sent on a low-risk mission for the White Fang. Her objective: investigate an old research facility that has been abandoned since the Great War. The name of this facility? Aperture Science.





	1. Prologue: The Entry

The wilds in between the kingdoms of Remnant were not places people generally wanted to stay longer than absolutely necessary. 

Though many small towns and villages existed outside the walls of the kingdoms, everyone knew there were risks involved. Greatest among these risks was the threat of the Creatures of Grimm, the soulless beasts that sought to destroy mankind and all its creations. The creatures of darkness came in many varieties, from the countless Beowulves that roamed the forests to the rare and powerful Beringal. No matter their form, though, they shared one thing in common; they were drawn in by negativity. Fear, anger, sadness, hatred… all these feelings could lure Grimm in if the feelings were powerful enough.

Bandits, too, were troublesome for anyone trying to eke out a living outside the protections of the kingdoms. This could compound matters if a village was attacked by bandits; fear and anger would bring the Grimm in by the droves if such feelings were driven high enough. But if you were well-armed and well-motivated, these threats were not as immediate to the mind. This was something that the White Fang knew well.

Humanity is not alone on the world of Remnant; there exists another race known as the Faunus. Physically identical to humans in most respects, Faunus have something that makes them stand out; a single characteristic drawn from an animal. Cat ears, monkey tails, claws, scales, all these and more could be traits held by different Faunus. This being the only difference between the two species, Faunus are even capable of interbreeding with humans. But as mankind is fearful of those it deems as 'different', for the longest time, the Faunus were mistreated. It has only been in the last eighty years that there have been strides made to bridge this age-old divide.

For some Faunus however, the strides weren’t large enough. Those Faunus make up the bulk of the White Fang; formerly an organization meant to uphold Faunus rights, it is now a radical sect that regularly attacks those who wrong the Faunus… and occasionally commit other acts of terrorism. Such acts require planning, however; poor planning leads to poor outcomes. At one camp in the wilds of Anima, just south of the kingdom of Mistral, planning was currently underway to determine their latest operations. It is here where this story will truly begin…

*****

"Alright, everyone, listen up!" barked the voice of Adam Taurus, silencing the chatter in the White Fang's camp. Standing tall, with red hair and his trademark black coat and rose emblem on the back, Adam was one of the most well-known and popular members in the entirety of the White Fang, as well as one of its most powerful fighters. He had consistently railed against mankind's oppression of the Faunus, both with words and with steel. His fervent desire to dispense his own brand of 'justice' to humanity had earned him a high rank in the White Fang; high enough that he could command an entire region's worth of their forces.

The bull faunus continued once the chatter had died down. "We've received a report that there's an old research and development facility nearby, one that hasn't seen use since the Great War. High Leader Khan has asked that we investigate and try to retrieve any useful technology we can."

This caused some murmuring among the White Fang faithful. "But if it hasn't been used since the War, what are the odds of us finding anything useful? That was nearly eighty years ago!" one member pointed out.

"Under normal circumstances, you'd be right," Adam admitted. "However, our intelligence indicates that this facility was far ahead of its time, with technology more advanced than anything seen elsewhere on Remnant, even in Atlas,” he claimed, referring to the most advanced of the Remnant Kingdoms. “It's possible, even with the gap in time since then, that it may hold something of value to us in our struggle.”

"Since it's beyond the kingdom's walls, it won't be patrolled by the Mistral Police," he continued. "As a result, High Leader Khan has designated this a low-risk mission of medium importance fit for a single operative. Do we have any volunteers?"

There was murmuring among the crowd, before a voice spoke up. "I'll go." Everyone turned to look at the speaker; a young girl, no older than 15, with long black hair and yellow eyes. On top of her head, two cat ears stood straight up, her gaze and stance resolute. On her back was a weapon, currently sheathed, though the observant would notice that the sheath itself could be a weapon with its sharp edge.

"Very well, Blake," Adam said, nodding. "The facility is located to the south of here, in the badlands. I'm transferring coordinates to your scroll,” he said, tapping a few points on his tablet display. Scrolls were commonplace on Remnant; nearly everyone had one, even those doing less than legal activities.

Blake Belladonna nodded as she received the information on her own tablet scroll. "I won't let you down, Adam."

"I know you won't, Blake," he replied. "I am well aware of your abilities, though this should hardly tax them. Still, though it hardly seems necessary… good luck."

*****

Two days later, Blake found herself in the badlands in the southern reaches of Anima. It had been a fairly easy trip, despite an encounter with a pack of Beowulves. The wolf-like Grimm were considered to be among the weakest of their kind… although that in no way meant they weren't dangerous to those without a means to defend themselves. Blake, however, was a rising star in the White Fang; one of the few who'd made her own custom weapon, she could fight, and fight well. The Beowulves, despite there being a large number of them, had proven little more than a distraction for her along her way to her destination, their shattered, disintigrating bodies littering the path behind her.

She was now near the coordinates that Adam had given her, yet she couldn't see anything that looked like the facility he spoke of. As she stalked through a massive field of yellow grass, she wondered if perhaps their intelligence had been wrong; that there was no facility. A more paranoid part of her mind wondered if perhaps this was a set-up; a Huntsman trap for any White Fang member foolish enough to take the bait so they could interrogate her as to her camp’s location.

"That's not possible," she told herself. "Adam and High Leader Khan wouldn't make that kind of mistake. If they thought this was a set-up, they would never have approved this for a single operative," she was only too certain. Having convinced herself, she looked around the field for any sign of the supposed facility.

But the only thing that broke her view of the flowing grass field was a small and rather rusted metallic shed. It barely looked big enough for one person to fit inside, let alone house any sort of research materials. Still, it was the only thing around these coordinates that looked manufactured, so she moved toward it.

As she drew closer, Blake noticed that it looked to be in severe disrepair. Her hopes of finding lost technology sank even further. "If this is what I'm looking for, then someone is having a laugh at our expense," she grumbled, moving toward the door. Noting that it opened outward, and there was no handle on this side, she pulled out Gambol Shroud, her variable ballistic kusarigama. Gambol Shroud had multiple forms and uses; the sheath doubled as a cleaver she could wield in sync with the main weapon, which had a pistol built into the handle. She could fold the main weapon into a more compact form, perfect for throwing and retrieving with the help of the ribbon wrapped around her left arm. Still, at the moment, she left it in the sheath, using the whole unit as a lever to pry the door open.

The door was surprisingly heavy, and the inside of it looked to be made of solid steel. This confused Blake, as she hadn't expected such solid construction on first seeing the shed. More confusing was the hole in the floor at the back of the shed. Blake moved over to it and looked down. The hole was manmade, looking somewhat like a circular elevator shaft, although no elevator or even a cable was present. She couldn't see the bottom, even with her excellent night vision.

Frowning, Blake pulled out her scroll, and called Adam. "Blake here. I've found… something at the coordinates, Adam, but I'm not sure it's what we're looking for. Whatever it is, it goes deep underground, probably deeper than scroll signals can reach. I can get into it, but I’ll likely be out of contact for a while."

"Hm… there’s probably no danger given how old it is, but do you want reinforcements, Blake?" Adam asked. "I can have Ilia and Yuma there in a day or so."

Blake considered the idea. It would be nice to have Ilia here with her. Still, while the thought of seeing her chameleon friend was appealing, she wasn't sure it would be worth spending time with the taciturn bat faunus Yuma. "I'll be fine, Adam," she said. "I took on this mission, and I'll finish it by myself." After a pause, she added, "Still, if I don’t check in within a couple of days, feel free to send Ilia and Yuma."

"As you wish. Be safe, my darling," Adam said in his loving manner. It was a semi-open secret in the White Fang that the two were… involved with each other, though they'd yet to go further than kissing; Blake was only 15 after all.

"I always try my best," Blake replied in a similar tone. She hung up, and after a moment of consideration, she firmly planted Gambol Shroud in its compact form into the ground at the lip of the hole, and began rappelling down, using her ribbon as the rope for her descent. As she made her way down the shaft, she spotted faded writing on the walls. Squinting, she could just make out the words.

"Hm… 'Aperture Science', huh? Sounds rather innocuous," she mused, and proceeded further down into the depths of the facility.


	2. Chapter One: The Override

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entering Aperture Science, Blake is trapped due to the facility's state of decay. Her only salvation is an odd artificial intelligence called Wheatley...

As she progressed down the elevator shaft, Blake eventually encountered a hole in the wall. It wasn't a hole formed by damage; it was too perfectly rectangular for that. She had to conclude that there had been something where the hole in the wall was, something that had been removed. The entry was small; she'd have to be crouching to move around in it. Still, she didn't have an infinite length of ribbon to work with, and so she decided to enter the hole. A quick tug on the ribbon in a precise manner dislodged Gambol Shroud from its perch, and she quickly retrieved and stowed it.

"Crawling through an unknown place, underground, with no real knowledge of what to expect," Blake grumbled as she crawled through the small area she found herself in. "Well, no one said the life of a freedom fighter was glamorous." She sighed. "Hopefully, it won't take too long to find anythiiiIIIIIII - !"

While crawling, her hand had pressed down on a rusted bit of the metal crawlspace, and it had given way under her. Under normal circumstances, Blake would have been able to pull back and avoid falling in. However, having been crawling forward, her weight was pulled forward and down into the new hole.

Blake wasn't exactly unused to falls, however, After the initial surprise, she quickly scanned what was looming out of the darkness. Spotting a catwalk below her, she reoriented herself to land directly on it. She hit feet-first, tucking into a roll as she did so, ending on her knees with one hand for support. The rattling of the catwalk echoed through the area, filled with what looked like large freight cars for trains stacked on top of one another.

"Well, that could have gone better," she mused, looking up. She spotted the hole she'd fallen through, high above her. Unfortunately, she couldn't see an easy way to get back up there; the freight cars, or whatever they were, didn't reach that high, and while she was quite skilled at jumping, even she would need some sort of boost to get from the top of the nearest container to the rusted hole. "Great, just what I needed. To be trapped in an abandoned research facility with no way out. Really good job, Blake."

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

The voice startled Blake, and she whirled around, drawing Gambol Shroud from its sheath and converting it into its compact form, aiming the pistol's barrel at the direction the voice had come from. _How is there someone down here?! This place is supposed to be abandoned!_ she thought. She couldn't see anyone, though the catwalk looped around one of the freight cars out of sight in the voice's direction. Out loud, she said, "Come out, and keep your hands where I can see them."

"Oh, thank God, I finally found someone else!" the voice replied. There was an odd whirring sound as it drew closer. "I've been searching the vault for hours, now, and - " As the speaker rounded the corner, it saw Blake aiming her gun at it. "GAH! Put that thing down! You could hurt someone with that!"

Blake nearly did so, purely out of astonishment. The speaker wasn't humanoid in the least. It was a metal sphere, attached to a rail that she'd just realized was built over the catwalk; a part of her noted she'd been extremely fortunate to have missed hitting it on the way down. A blue light was visible in the center of the sphere, and from the way the metal around it moved, it almost seemed like the light was an eye of sorts. "What… what are you?" Blake asked, keeping her aim on it, just in case it was dangerous.

"Oh, right! Introductions!" the sphere exclaimed. Now that Blake was paying attention, it had a male voice that sounded like it was from the southeastern end of Solitas, the northernmost continent in Remnant. "I'm Wheatley. I'm in charge of the Relaxation Vault here at Aperture Science. Now could you please put that gun down? I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."

Blake hesitated for a moment, then slowly put Gambol Shroud away. It didn't look like this 'Wheatley' had any means of hurting her, anyway. "You didn't answer me. I asked what you were, not who."

The metal around Wheatley's eye clicked shut around it briefly, like a human eye would blink. "Oh, so you did. Um, I'm a Personality Core. An artificial intelligence in a spherical body, essentially."

Blake's mind spun with the implications. AI was just beginning to be seriously researched in the kingdom of Atlas, and from what she'd heard so far, it was fairly rudimentary. Yet here was a facility in Anima, seemingly abandoned since the Great War, and there was a fully functional, self-aware AI! This alone proved that Aperture Science had indeed been ahead of its time. If Blake could get back to the White Fang with Wheatley intact… he alone could be an enormous find.

Wheatley continued talking while she pondered this. "Now that I look at you, you don't look like one of the test subjects. Come to think of it, no subjects are allowed weapons of any type. Plus, that doesn't look remotely like a standard security weapon. So you're not a subject, and you're not a security officer… who are you?"

Blake collected herself. "I'm Blake Belladonna. I came here from outside."

"Wait, what?!" The blue part of Wheatley's eye shrank to a pinprick, much like a pupil on a mammal's eye. "You mean, you purposely came in here? What's the matter with you?! This place is a death trap!"

Blake raised an eyebrow. "I was told that this place had technology far ahead of its time. I was trying to get some of that tech to bring back with me to the White Fang." She glanced up at the hole she'd fallen through. "Unfortunately, my way out isn't going to be easy to get to, especially if I'm carrying unknown tech."

Wheatley looked up as well, spotting the hole. "Oooh, yeah, that's not happening," he muttered. Then he brightened. "But hey! This actually works out perfect for us! We can work together to get out of here!"

Blake blinked. "You mean, you want to leave?" She'd thought that she would have to do some talking to convince Wheatley to come with her.

Before Wheatley could respond, another voice sounded from speakers nearby. "Prepare for emergency evacuation."

"Yeah, not much point in sticking around," Wheatley said, looking at the speaker. "This place is a wreck, so if we can get out of here, I'm taking that opportunity. And I'll sweeten the deal for you; you get me out of here, you can keep any Aperture tech we come across in the process. Win for both of us!"

Blake was wondering about the 'emergency evacuation' but decided it wasn't too important, especially with the deal Wheatley had offered. "So, where do we start?"

"Well, first off, you're going to need some Longfall Boots," Wheatley said. "I passed a locker on the way here, there should be some in there." He began traveling along the rail, back in the direction he'd come from. After a moment, Blake followed.

* * * * *

They reached the locker after a couple of minutes. It was a locked door that Wheatley, thankfully, had the ability to hack, though he asked Blake to turn around while he did so, claiming it would be a bit 'technical'. Despite rolling her eyes, Blake did so. The locker opened, revealing a pair of white, knee-high boots with an odd metal brace on the rear. "So, what exactly are these?"

"Basically, they allow you to survive falls of pretty much infinite height," Wheatley replied. "I don't think they've tested just how much height is too much, but for what we're doing, it'll be more than enough. Won't even damage your Aura."

Blake thought about that. Her fall earlier had taken a chunk out of her Aura, according to her scroll's reading. As Aura, the power of the soul, was the main method by which humanity protected themselves from harm, anything that could keep it from being damaged was a blessing. Nodding, Blake pulled off her own shoes, and pulled the Longfall Boots on, testing their comfort. To her surprise, they fit well, and didn't seem to require breaking in. "Huh. These are actually pretty nice," she noted.

"And now that you've got them, we can really get to work getting out of here," Wheatley noted happily. He nodded to one of the freight cars, which Blake noticed had a door leading to the catwalk. "Go ahead and enter that Relaxation Unit there, and we'll get started."

Blake frowned. "'Relaxation Unit'?" she parroted. "What does…" She trailed off as she opened the door into what could have been a generic single-person hotel room, complete with minibar, old paintings, and even an archaic non-holographic television. The disparity between the cozy room and the open catwalk outside made her blink. "What… is this?"

"This, is one of the ten thousand Relaxation Units here in the Relaxation Vault, which I happen to be in charge of," Wheatley replied, moving in via his rail, which terminated in the middle of the ceiling. "Between tests, subjects spend their time in these units, which also acts as a cryosleep chamber."

_Cryosleep…?_ Blake wondered, then her eyes widened at the implications of everything she'd heard. "Wait! This facility conducted scientific tests on _people?!_ "

"Well, yes, if you need to be blunt about it," Wheatley admitted. "Been doing things that way since… oh, I forget how long it's been. Longer than I've been functional, I can tell you that."

Before Blake could respond to that, the voice she'd heard on the catwalk sounded again. "Reactor core meltdown imminent." An alarm starting going off as well.

"Okay, y'know what? We can talk after we get out of here," Wheatley said, as part of the ceiling above him retracted and drew him and the bit of rail he was on into it. "Oh! Word of advice, you may want to hold onto something. Just a suggestion, up to you."

Blake, deciding questions about the facility's morality could wait, went over to the closet and grabbed onto the coat rack rail, just as the room shook. Whatever the Relaxation Unit's outer shell was made out of, it clearly wasn't that durable, as parts of the wall fell away, revealing a hole through which she could view their movement through the Vault.

"Okay, so, I wasn't going to say anything, but I'm in pretty hot water here!" Wheatley spoke up as he piloted the Unit from wherever he was above the ceiling. "The reserve power ran out, so naturally, the Relaxation Vault stops waking up the bloody test subjects!"

As he spoke, the Unit swayed as he changed directions on whatever track it was being pulled on. A collision with something else, probably another Unit, caused more of the wall to fall away, giving Blake a better view. The Vault, she could see, was huge, with dozens, if not hundreds, of Units. And the fact that the reserve power had run out… Blake felt sick. "So, all these people… they're all dead?"

"Brain-dead, at the very least, now hold on, I need to concentrate!" Wheatley replied, as he narrowly wove the Unit through two others that had a sizeable gap between them. "And of course, nobody tells me anything! Noooo, why should they tell me anything?" There was a squeal of metal-on-metal as he scraped past another one of the large Units. "Why should I be kept informed, y'know, of the vital signs of the ten thousand test subjects I'm supposed to be in charge of?!"

" _Ten thousand?!_ " Blake was horrified. That was almost as much as the population of the Faunus homeland of Menagerie in its entirety. The idea that there were that many people down in this facility, who'd all died due to power failure…

A jolt ran through her as Wheatley collided with another Unit, sending it crashing down into the depths. "Argh, hit that one, I hit that one," he said unnecessarily. "And whose fault do you think it'll be, when management comes along, and finds ten thousand flipping vegetables?"

Blake didn't trust herself to speak. She was seriously regretting her decision to come here. The moral and ethical implications of what Aperture had done were beyond the pale.

"Okay, I guess that's probably not the brightest thing to ask, since, y'know, we're going to be leaving," Wheatley noted, as they rounded a corner between two Units, approaching a solid wall. "Now, we're near one of the old testing tracks! You'll find a piece of equipment in there we're going to need to get out of here. I think this is a docking station right here, get ready!"

As they approached the wall, the Unit paused in its flight, then backed up. Blake, still slightly sickened by what she'd heard, spotted writing on the wall: 'Docking Station - 500 Feet Down', complete with arrows that marked the way. Her eyes widened. "Wheatley, wait - "

There was a tremendous clang as the Unit impacted the wall. The wall seemed to be sturdier than the walls of the Unit, but not by much; the impact had clearly done some damage. "Good news, that is not a docking station! I'm going to attempt a manual override on this wall! Could get a bit technical, hold on!" The Unit backed up, and then lurched forward again.

Blake held onto the coat rack for dear life as another jolt ran through her with the impact. _Great, of all the ways I could possibly die, death by insane AI crashing me into a wall was not one I expected. Would make a decent epitaph, though. Why am I thinking about this?!_

As the Unit backed up again, Wheatley spoke up. "Nearly there! Remember, you're looking for a gun that shoots holes! Not bullet holes, but… well, you'll see! Really do hold on this time!"

This time, the crash was hard enough to cause Blake to lose her grip on the coat rack. Thankfully, the bed was right in front of her, and so she was merely sprawled across its width. As she lay there, breathing hard, she heard the motors that propelled the room disengage, and Wheatley came back in. She glared balefully up at him. "You maniac. You could have gotten me killed." She was too busy focusing on getting her breathing back to normal to put much venom into her reproach.

"Possibly, but I doubt that would have happened. Although, if you had died, I'd be up the creek, now wouldn't I?" Wheatley noted. "Anyway." He motioned to where the wall he'd rammed had been, revealing an open area, with part of the floor made of glass. "In there's the old testing track. You seem like a smart girl, and you've got the boots, so this should be a piece of cake for you. So, you just scurry along, and I'll meet you up ahead."

Blake stood up and dusted herself off. After giving Wheatley one last glare, she stepped through the ruined wall. Looking around, she noticed that the glass part of the floor was heavily cracked; she honestly doubted it would support her weight. Rather than find out, she pulled out Gambol Shroud and fired a couple of rounds, shattering the glass and earning a startled yelp from Wheatley.

Leaping down, she found herself in a cubicle. Three of the walls were glass, while the fourth was solid. One part of the solid wall had odd protrusions poking out from it. Within the cubicle, there was a small stand with an empty clipboard, a mug, and some sort of radio on it, though the radio was off, and Blake couldn't see a means to turn it on. In addition, there was a toilet in the cubicle, as well as a large hollow pod of some kind. It looked to be big enough for a human to fit in…

Blake was spared the opportunity to wonder more about the morality of Aperture Science when the voice - she mentally dubbed it the 'Announcer' - spoke up. "Hello, and again, welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. We are currently experiencing technical difficulties due to circumstances of potentially apocalyptic significance beyond our control. However, thanks to Emergency Testing Protocols, testing can continue. These pre-recorded messages will provide instructional and motivational support, so that science can still be done, even in the event of environmental, social, economic, or structural collapse. The portal will open, and emergency testing will begin in three. Two. One."

Before Blake could wonder what was meant by 'portal', the protrusions on the one part of the solid wall lit up, with an orange-rimmed hole appearing between them. Simultaneously, a section of wall outside the glass cubicle lit up with a blue-rimmed hole appearing. When Blake looked out through the orange hole, she was startled to see herself inside the cubicle. Doing some mental calculations, she realized that she was seeing herself from the perspective of the blue hole. Hesitantly, she poked a hand through the hole, then cautiously stepped through, emerging from the blue-rimmed hole… or portal, as she now realized.

"Point-to-point wormhole technology… that's absolutely incredible," she breathed in wonder. "Oh, if I could get ahold of this, it would revolutionize our efforts. We could sneak into places, rob them blind, and sneak out without anyone being the wiser." Already she was picturing using the portals to deal major damage to the Schnee Dust Company, the largest producer of Dust-powered products in the world… and a company known for questionable business practices and labor laws.

Still, at the moment, she couldn't see a means to remove the portal generators, so she maneuvered around the cubicle to a circular door in the wall. It opened up as she approached, revealing a rectangular chamber. It was mostly bare, with a large red button on the floor, and an equally large cube some distance away. Another circular door was set in the rightmost wall from where she'd entered.

"Cube-and-button-based testing remains an important part of science, even in a dire emergency," the Announcer intoned. "If cube-and-button-based testing caused this emergency, don't worry. The odds of this happening twice are very slim."

"That's reassuring," Blake deadpanned. "So the 'tests' here were just critical thinking puzzles? That's better than I was expecting." She went over to the cube, and tested its weight. For its size, it was surprisingly light, so she picked it up, and set it on the button, lighting it up. The circular door on the far wall opened partially, but a shower of sparks erupted, causing it to remain only partly open. Still, that was enough for her to slip through, so she did, though she paused at the sight of the odd translucent field in front of her.

"Please note the incandescent particle field across the exit. This Aperture Science Emancipation Grill will vaporize any unauthorized equipment that passes through it," the Announcer noted.

Blake tensed. _This could be bad,_ she thought. _If it vaporizes Gambol Shroud, I'll have to make my way back through the badlands without a weapon. If it vaporizes my Scroll, I won't be able to contact Adam or anyone else once I get out of here. Either is bad._ She sighed. _Still, I don't have much choice. I'll just have to pass through and hope this field is faulty._

She took a breath, and stepped through the field. After a moment, she relaxed as she still felt Gambol Shroud's weight on her back, and her Scroll in her pocket. Moving onward, she found a circular area with a small elevator waiting for her. Stepping inside, the elevator door closed, and it descended, taking her deeper into the facility.

"Critical thinking and problem solving. These kinds of tests, I can do," Blake mused. "If this is all the facility has to offer, what's the worst that could happen?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, a few people have left kudos on this insane idea of mine, so I've decided to let you all see the next chapter! Enjoy!


	3. Chapter Two: The Device

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake continues through the tests of Aperture Science, finds the Portal Gun, and eventually reunites with Wheatley.

When the elevator came to a stop, the door opened. As Blake stepped out of it, she found herself in a somewhat sunken circular area with a staircase leading up and out. As she moved forward, the Announcer spoke up. "If you feel liquid running down your neck, relax, lie on your back, and apply immediate pressure to your temples. You are merely experiencing a rare reaction in which the Material Emancipation Grill may have emancipated the ear tubes inside your head."

"Colorful," Blake muttered, doing a quick check of herself. Satisfied that no, she had not lost any body parts to the Emancipation Grill, she proceeded up the stairs into the next chamber, muttering dark threats against the twisted mind who had named such an invention. A short drop led into a rectangular room cordoned off into four sections by glass walls. The section she was in had a trio of small buttons on raised pedestals, each in front of one of the other sections. One of the areas had a cube in it, identical to the one from the previous test chamber. Another had one of the large floor-mounted buttons. The last held the exit door.

"Hm… okay, so I need to get the cube out of that area and onto the button, then get to the door. But how do I…?" Blake wondered, trailing off as she spied an orange mass on the wall. It looked like one of the portal entrances, save that there was no view of the other side. Blake frowned, and looked at the three sectioned-off areas. Her keen eyes quickly spotted the portal emitters in each one, with a dotted blue line leading back to the small buttons. "Ah, I get it now," she mused as she pressed the button in front of the area with the cube. The portal emitters glowed, forming the blue entrance. Looking back at the orange entrance, she smiled as she saw that it now showed her the inside of that area.

Retrieving the cube, Blake changed the portal to the next area, with the large floor-mounted button, and set the cube down on it. As expected, this opened the door, which she then changed the portal to lead to. Stepping through to it, the Announcer spoke up. "Good! Because of the technical difficulties we are experiencing, your test environment is unsupervised. Before re-entering a relaxation vault at the conclusion of testing, please take a moment to write down the results of your test. An Aperture Science Reintegration Associate will revive you for an interview when society has been rebuilt."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Blake deadpanned, walking through the door. She balked briefly at the Emancipation Grill in front of her, but steeled herself and passed through. After making sure she hadn't lost anything, be it her equipment or body parts, she continued to the elevator. "Maybe those grills don't target my weapon or scroll because they aren't made by Aperture?" Shrugging the question off, she entered the elevator.

* * * * *

Another elevator ride later, Blake found herself in another sunken circular area, with the Announcer providing pre-recorded commentary. "If Remnant is currently governed by a manner of animal king, sentient cloud, or other governing body that either refuses to, or is incapable of, listening tO ReAsOnnnnnnn…"

Blake blinked as the recording shorted out. "Well, drat," she snarked. "I was wondering what this place wanted me to do in that case." Shaking her head, she moved into the testing area.

Going down a small set of stairs, she was briefly startled by the appearance of Wheatley in a hole in the wall. "Hey hey, you made it!" he said happily. "Didn't doubt you for a second, honestly."

_Then maybe you shouldn't mention doubt in the first place?_ Blake thought. Out loud, she said, "What can I say, I'm a girl of many talents."

"I can tell," he replied, moving down his rail. The hole in the wall was extensive, so Blake could still see him. "There should be a portal device on that podium over there," he added, gesturing into the main chamber.

"Portal… device? As in, a device that can create its own independent portals?" The very idea made Blake giddy. Forget Wheatley, forget the wall-mounted portal emitters; a portable portal generator would be worth its weight in platinum. She moved into the main chamber looking around.

"Yes indeed, that's right!" Wheatley confirmed. "Can't quite see it though… maybe it fell off."

Blake frowned; the podium was indeed empty. She stepped closer for a better look in the chamber…

… just as the floor beneath her gave way. "WAAAH!" she exclaimed intelligently as she underwent a brief vertical change in location.

"Whoa!" she heard Wheatley exclaim at roughly the same time.

When Blake landed, she found herself ankle-deep in brackish water. Such a fall would normally have required her to roll to minimize the damage to her Aura. However, her new Longfall Boots had completely absorbed the impact, leaving her with only a brief shudder through her body. _Impressive, these things actually work as advertised._

"Hello?" Wheatley called down. "Can you see the portal gun? … Also, are you alive? That's important, should have asked that first."

"I'm fine!" Blake called back. "Just a little startled! And no, I don't see anything that looks like a 'portal gun'."

"Well, bugger… Um, okay! Tell you what, I'm going to assume you can make it out of there, and hopefully find the portal gun! I'll meet you up ahead, in - in about, say, one hour? If you don't find your way to me by then, I'll come back and try to lead you out! Okay? Brilliant! Go, team! See you in an hour! Hopefully."

Blake rolled her eyes. "I'm getting the impression he doesn't put the 'intelligence' in 'AI'," she muttered to herself. With that, she picked her way through the area she'd found herself in. She was grateful for the fact that the Longfall Boots appeared to be watertight; her feet remained dry as she stepped through the standing water.

Rounding a bend, she found an area that was better lit. A series of panels had been raised up in the center of the area, above the waterline. More panels acted as walls to the area, forming a semi-closed space. Up above, she could see a catwalk leading to an open room that might lead back to the testing track. An orange portal entrance could be seen on a panel next to the catwalk, though no blue portal could be seen. She moved forward, intent on simply jumping up there, but paused when she noticed the murals.

The panels forming the walls were decorated with strange paintings. The first, on the leftmost wall, showed a group of stick-figures in lab coats surrounding some sort of machine with a yellow eye. The stick-figures looked to be celebrating. The next mural showed the same machine in greater detail; it looked vaguely like a woman in bondage gear strapped to the ceiling. What was disturbing was the fact that the machine was surrounded by a dark cloud, giving it a sinister appearance. The baleful yellow eye seemed to glare at Blake, even through the painting. She shuddered at that.

The next mural showed the machine in ruins, with an orange-coated stick figure holding some sort of device on its arm standing triumphant over it. Blake considered that scene, tilting her head. "If I'm understanding these murals right, the scientists here built a machine, possibly an AI like Wheatley, that they were proud of. The machine turned evil, and someone was forced to dismantle it." She turned away from the mural… only to spot one more painting, off to the side.

This one, unlike the three others, was a detailed painting of a human woman with vaguely Mistralian features. She was dressed in an orange jumpsuit, and had her arms spread out to her sides. In the center of the jumpsuit was a white cross; a symbol, Blake knew from extensive reading, of certain religions in the world. In fact, the painting looked like some depiction of a messianic figure from those religions. She shook her head. "Someone had a high opinion of this woman." She looked at the center platform, only now noticing there was something on top of it. She jumped up to it, inspecting it curiously.

It was a sleek, white device, with three black prongs jutting from one end. The prongs surrounded a tube, which disappeared into the device itself. The other end of the device had a large opening in it, looking like it fit over a person's arm. Testing this, Blake inserted her hand into the opening, and smiled when she grasped what was undoubtedly a handle inside the device. "You must be the portal gun Wheatley told me about," she purred, hefting it. It was a bit weighty, but nothing she couldn't handle. She paused when she realized she'd forgotten one crucial detail. "Now, how do I use you?"

Thankfully, exploring with her hand inside the gun revealed a set of triggers on the handle of the gun. One trigger didn't seem to do anything at the moment, merely causing the device to shake and some small sparks to fly from the barrel. When she pulled the other trigger, however, a blue bolt of energy shot out, striking one of the panel-walls, and forming a blue portal entrance. Judging from the viewpoint, it connected directly to the wall-emitted orange portal near the catwalk. "That's convenient," she mused, hopping through the portal and onto the catwalk. "Wonder why Aperture chose blue and orange for their portal entrance colors?"

* * * * *

With the portal gun in hand, Blake made her way through the next few testing chambers, one by one, each puzzle failing to stump her. That wasn't to say some of the puzzles weren't interesting, however.

One puzzle revealed something interesting about portals; namely, that they didn't affect momentum. She had fallen into a pit, putting a portal at the bottom of it, and been shot out the other end which was mounted on a high wall, rocketing over to the exit. It was something of a rush, flying through the air like that. Not to say she hadn't made death-defying falls before in her time in the White Fang, but having her direction change suddenly like that was a new experience. She also realized during this test that the Longfall Boots would automatically reorient her body feet-first towards the ground, no matter what direction she came out from a portal. That was also good to know.

Another test had shown her that large pits of water were considered 'out-of-bounds' for testing. She'd learned this when a cube she needed for a button had fallen into the water and been promptly vaporized. Having no desire to experience that herself, she was careful to avoid falling into said water. That puzzle had involved timing a section of the floor to raise up at the right moment to catch a cube before it fell into the water from the momentum of flying through the portal. It had taken her a couple of tries to get the timing just right.

Throughout the tests, the Announcer had prattled on, offering advice that was obvious at best, dubious at worst. In the momentum chamber, for example, it had offered the following nugget of wisdom: "This next test applies the principles of momentum to movement through portals. If the laws of physics no longer apply in the future, gods help you."

One thing Blake was grateful for was the continued inability of the Emancipation Grills to vaporize either her equipment or parts of her body. She'd begun to theorize that they weren't designed to work on equipment that had been attuned to someone's Aura. Wheatley had mentioned that normal test subjects weren't allowed weapons, and it wasn't a huge leap in logic to assume that they weren't allowed scrolls, either. They might not have any personal belongings on them at all in the tests. Since both her scroll and Gambol Shroud were attuned to her Aura, the grill might read them as being part of her.

As Blake entered what was labeled as Test Chamber 07, the Announcer spoke again. "To ensure enough power remains for core testing protocols, all safety devices have been disabled. The Enrichment Center respects your right to have questions or concerns about this policy."

"And do you do anything about those concerns?" grumbled the feline Faunus. Her experience thus far in Aperture, both in the Vault and through the tests, had shown her one thing beyond doubt: Aperture Science was a morally bankrupt research center, prioritizing the advancement of science over the safety and concerns of the testing subjects. Still, the Portal Gun (she'd begun thinking of it with the capital letters, since it was so important) and Longfall Boots would make excellent prizes from her excursions here.

"Hey! Oi, oi!" The voice of Wheatley caught Blake off-guard, and she saw a hole in the wall. Through the hole, she spied Wheatley in an adjacent chamber. His eye blinked quickly at her. "Oh, brilliant! You did find a portal gun!"

"Yeah, it wasn't that hard to figure out," Blake noted. She popped a blue portal on the wall behind Wheatley, hopping through the orange one that was in her chamber.

"Given how smart you seem to be, I don't doubt it," the Personality Core said. Then he got a nervous look in his eye… as nervous as an artificial sphere with only one eye for expression could look, anyway. "Okay, listen, I need to lay something on you, Blake, and it's pretty heavy."

"What is it?" Blake asked, concerned; she hadn't seen Wheatley speak in anything but a dissonantly cheery tone for most of the time she'd known him. That wasn't long, admittedly, but hearing him sound so serious was a bit unnerving.

"I was told, from day one, to _never never ever_ disengage from my Management Rail, or I would _die_. But, we're out of options, here, since I need to be free from the rail to actually help you."

Blake considered that. It was, as he'd said, rather heavy to contemplate. Still… "I understand. I'll try to catch you… assuming you're not dead the moment you disconnect from that thing."

"Thanks, I knew you'd understand," Wheatley replied in a grateful voice. "On 'three'. Ready?"

Blake braced herself, bending her knees slightly as she held her arms in a catching pose. The fact that one arm was still holding the Portal Gun registered, but she didn't think it'd be a problem; most of Aperture's tech was lighter than expected.

"One. Two…" Wheatley hesitated briefly, then blurted out "THREE!" … and promptly slid back on his rail a bit. "That's - high. It's way too high, isn't it, really, that…"

Blake frowned. "Quit being such a baby. You're made of metal, it's not like a three-foot drop is going to damage you… unless you're built like an Orange III computer."

"Point… Still, going on 'three' just gives you too much time to think about it. I'm going to go on 'one' this time. Okay?"

Blake rolled her eyes, but braced herself again.

"One CATCHMECATCHMECATCHME - " Wheatley wailed as he fell… right between Blake's arms, landing with a thud on the floor. "Ow… "

Blake kneeled down. "Sorry, misjudged how big you were."

Wheatley didn't seem to notice. "I… am not dead! I'm not dead! Haha!" He seemed elated that the news of his impending death was, in fact, a fabrication. "Can't seem to move, though, that's a problem."

Blake sighed, and moved to pick him up… and nearly gave herself a hernia. "Oof! Good thing I didn't actually catch you, you'd have crushed me even through my Aura!"

"Hey! Are you saying I'm fat?!" Wheatley protested. "And why are you trying to lift me with your arms? The portal gun has a grappling feature in it!"

Blake blinked. "Grappling… feature?" The only thing that came to mind was the first trigger, the one that hadn't seemed to do anything when she pressed it. Curious, she aimed the gun at Wheatley, and pulled said trigger. Wheatley was promptly suspended in the air in front of her, spinning around to face her. "Well. Now I feel silly. I was carrying those cubes in the tests with my arms, but this would have been a lot easier."

"'Sokay, happens to the best of us," Wheatley assured her. As he spoke, a section of the wall nearby opened up, revealing a computer port of some kind. "Plug me into the wall over there, and I'll show you something great. Trust me, you'll love this."

Blake moved over to the port, hovering Wheatley over it. Before she could wonder how to manipulate the field to slip Wheatley onto the extended prong, however, a pair of clamps came out and pulled him onto the port.

"Okay, um, can you turn around real quick? I can't do it if you're watching," Wheatley asked.

Knowing from experience from when she got the Longfall Boots, Blake sighed, but did as he asked, turning away from him. She heard a series of beeps, and the sound of mechanical whirring. Turning back around, she saw Wheatley disengaging from the computer port, as a large section of wall folded away, revealing a catwalk leading out of the testing track.

"BAM. Secret passage, that I opened," Wheatley said. "Brilliant stuff, amirite?"

Blake rolled her eyes again. She had a feeling that when Wheatley was involved, she would be doing that a lot. Picking him up using the Portal Gun, she stepped out onto the catwalk.

"Look at this!" Wheatley exclaimed. "No rail to tell us where to go!" He sounded giddy. "Oh, this is brilliant. We can go wherever we want!" He paused briefly. "Hold on, though. Where are we going?"

"Wait, you don't know where to go from here?!" Blake exclaimed. "You're supposed to be my guide!"

"Of course I know where to go!" Wheatley retorted. "I just… need to get my bearings. Um… just, follow the rail, actually," he finished lamely, gesturing with his eye to the rail that ran overhead.

"The things I do for the cause," sighed Blake again, as she continued down the catwalks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it wasn't apparent, I'm aiming for a monthly release schedule for this fic. My goal is to keep at least one chapter ready while I'm working on the next. That way, in case I'm not done with the chapter I'm currently working on, I can still release something every month.


	4. Chapter Three: The Awakening

Blake walked down the catwalk, marveling at the fact that the Portal Gun's grappling feature allowed her to so easily carry Wheatley without any strain. Even minus the portal generation, this alone could solve numerous problems around the White Fang camps. Moving crates and spare parts around was one of the most tedious jobs, especially when they had to break camp. With something like this, such a task could be made much simpler.

 

"Hello?" a voice startled her out of her thoughts. Looking up, she saw a large glass tube that ran next to the catwalk. Inside the tube was a small white ovoid with a blinking red 'eye' of sorts.

 

"Oh, no…" muttered Wheatley.

 

"Hello?" the voice said again. It sounded almost child-like in its tone.

 

"Yes, hello!" Wheatley called to the ovoid. "No, we're not stopping!" To Blake, in an undertone, he added, "Don't make eye contact, whatever you do."

 

Blake arched an eyebrow at that. "Why?"

 

"Just don't, trust me, it'll make things easier," he replied.

 

"Excuse me?" the ovoid piped up.

 

"No thanks! We're good! Appreciate it!" Wheatley called again. "Keep moving, keep moving…" he told Blake. She sighed, but followed his directions.

 

"Thanks anyway," the ovoid called after them.

 

After they were a ways away, Blake asked, "Okay, so what was that all about?"

 

"Well, that was a malfunctioning turret," Wheatley answered. "Normally, they serve as live-fire obstacles in some of the tests. That one's on the fritz, or it wouldn't be in the reclamation tube."

 

"Turrets? 'Live-fire'?" Blake honestly wished she could conjure up more horror, but after everything else she'd learned here in Aperture, she just wasn't surprised by anything anymore. "So test subjects had to dodge bullets to get through the tests?"

 

"Well, usually they use those storage cubes to block the bullets, since those things can take a beating," Wheatley clarified. "And if you knock a turret over, its circuits go crazy, and it'll shut down."

 

"Hm. Good to know," Blake mused, though she honestly wasn't sure if it'd be worth it to grab a turret or two before leaving. "Still can't believe what kind of insane mind came up with all these tests. Even the ones I was in before we got onto this catwalk could've killed me if I didn't have the Longfall Boots or Portal Gun. Whoever made this place, I hope I don't meet them."

 

"Yeah, uh, funny you should mention that," Wheatley said nervously, as they waited for a door's lock to cycle and open. "In order to get out of here, we're going to have to go through _her_ chamber. And she will probably kill us if, um, she's awake."

 

"'Her'?" Blake asked, bewildered.

 

"Yeah. The one who designed those tests. The one in charge of all of Aperture Science," Wheatley clarified.

 

Blake tensed slightly. _So whoever she is, she's insane, and sociopathic at best._ Out loud, she said, "I'm not afraid of anyone. Least of all some psycho who gets her kicks killing innocents." With that, she marched down the hallway she found herself in, heading for a door at the end that started to open, slowly, as she approached it.

 

"Okay, I'm gonna lay my cards on the table," Wheatley said quickly. "I don't wanna do it. I don't want to go in there. Don't - Don't go in there - !" He cut off as he glanced inside. "She's off, she's off! Panic over! She's off. All fine! On we go."

 

Blake blinked. "Well, that was anticlimactic," she mused as she walked inside. Even compared to the rest of the facility, this place was a wreck. Plants had overgrown some of the walls and floor, and standing water came up to Blake's ankles in parts. Twisted metal lay in scraps on the floor, or nearly ripped out of the walls.

 

In the center of the room was a large, tangled mess of metal and cables. It looked like it was mounted on the ceiling at one point, but something had pulled it nearly off the mounting. It now lay in a heap on the floor.

 

"There she is," muttered Wheatley. "What a nasty piece of work she was, honestly. Like a proper maniac."

 

"Who was she?" asked Blake, wondering why the tangled heap looked familiar somehow.

 

"The Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System, or GLaDOS for short," Wheatley answered. "Aperture Science's greatest accomplishment, and their biggest mistake, all in one metallic package. She's the reason this facility was abandoned, y'know? Gassed all the scientists with neurotoxin."

 

Had Blake thought she'd gotten over the horrors of Aperture? She was wrong. "Neurotoxin?! I thought this place just, you know, tested people's critical thinking and problem solving skills!"

 

"Well, yeah, they do that too, but mainly the tests are to study the functionality of the portal guns," he said blithely. "Aperture's never really cared about people. But she took it to a new level. Even after people completed her testing tracks, she'd end up killing them anyway."

 

Blake narrowed her eyes. "How could the scientists have let that happen? Didn't they have ways to keep her from going rogue?"

 

"They tried, believe me, they tried," Wheatley said sadly. "But they'd built her too well. She was too smart, and nothing they did stuck. And she wasn't happy about all the things they did to try to rein her in. That's why she gassed them."

 

Blake shook her head. The more she learned of Aperture, the less she wanted to be here. "So what happened to her?"

 

"You're not gonna believe this," Wheatley replied. "It was a human. A test subject broke loose from the testing tracks and took her down. Wouldn't have believed it myself, but, well, she's been offline ever since. And no one's seen the human since then, either."

 

Suddenly, Blake recalled why the tangled mess looked familiar. It was like part of the mural, where the machine that had had the sinister aura around it lay defeated at the hands of a stick figure in an orange jumpsuit. And if the painting off by itself had been an indication of what that figure had looked like… "So, how long ago was that?"

 

"Oh, I don't even know, my internal clock's been on the blink for a while," Wheatley sighed. "All I know is that it was a while back. Nothing much happened between then and now, except, y'know, us planning our escape. So, that's pretty much the whole story, you're up to speed." As an afterthought, he added, "Don't touch anything."

 

"Wasn't planning on it," Blake deadpanned. She stepped around the twisted mess that was the facility's former caretaker and stepped through the water to an open area in the back of the room.

 

"Down these stairs," Wheatley said, indicating a metal staircase to the side.

 

Blake, however, decided to expedite matters, and jumped the railing. Ignoring Wheatley's yell, she fell what she estimated was about three stories into standing water. "That's faster than the stairs," she said as Wheatley looked at her, indignant.

 

"Point, but what if the place we needed to go was up on those catwalks, hm?" he asked somewhat snidely.

 

"There were literally no other entrances or exits up on those catwalks, Wheatley," she retorted. "Which means that the place we're going has to be down here."

 

Wheatley shook his eye. "Are all you White Fang types this aggressive? I mean, you just jumped three stories without hesitating!"

 

"Not the first time I've done something like that, won't be the last," Blake replied, making her way to the next area. This was another set of catwalks. "How much farther?"

 

"Shouldn't be too much - AH!" Wheatley's yelp caused Blake to pause. "Oh, sorry, I just looked down. I do not recommend that."

 

Blake proceeded to look down. Their catwalk seemed to be suspended over an abyss, which she could not see the bottom of. "How high up are we?"

 

"Dunno for sure, but - AH! I've just done it again," he replied. "Anyway, I know this facility is huge; it goes down for miles."

 

Blake blinked. "How has this place remained semi-secret for so long? If it's that huge…"

 

"Well, when almost all of the facility is underground, it's easier to keep concealed," Wheatley replied.

 

"Fair point," Blake noted as she proceeded down the catwalk.

 

They soon came to a chamber at the end of the catwalk. "Here we are, the main breaker room," Wheatley said cheerfully. "Let's go in!"

 

"Right, why are we here, again?" Blake asked, having no idea why they needed a room full of circuit breakers to escape. And it was indeed full of circuit breakers; the cylindrical chamber walls were seemingly made of nothing but circuit breakers.

 

"We're looking for a switch that says 'Escape Pod', alright?" Wheatley replied. "That way we can power it up, and only it up. Don't touch _anything_ else. Not interested in anything else. Don't _touch_ anything else, don't even _look_ at anything else, just - well, obviously, you've got to look at everything else to find 'Escape Pod', but as soon as you - "

 

"I get it!" Blake snapped, looking around. "No need to overthink this."

 

"Right, of course," Wheatley said meekly. Glancing around, he asked, "Can you see it anywhere? I can't see it anywhere."

 

"No, but this room's pretty large," Blake responded. "Wish we could just look at a map so I could jump to the right breaker."

 

"Oh, there's a thought!" Wheatley mused. A plug similar to the one he'd used before to open the secret wall appeared. "Plug me in, and I'll see if I can look at the directory for this place."

 

With no better ideas, Blake did so, letting Wheatley get settled in. A few seconds later, some lights came on in the chamber, providing more illumination. Blake blinked some spots out of her eyes. "Okay, why'd you do that?"

 

"You're a Faunus, so you have good night vision. Me, not so much," Wheatley admitted. "Thought this would make things easier to see." He gasped a bit as the floor suddenly spun slightly sideways. "Oh, look at that! It moves! Ominous. But probably nothing to worry about, unless it starts moving up."

 

Blake rolled her eyes, as a siren began to sound. "Wheatley, just find the right breaker."

 

"Right. Escape pod, escape pod…" muttered Wheatley as he searched through the computer's database… only for the floor to begin moving up, flipping breakers on as it did so. "It's - it's moving up."

 

"And this is bad?" Blake asked.

 

"Potentially very," Wheatley answered. "Don't panic, though, I've got this!" There was a bleeping sound and the floor stopped moving. "That should slow it down!" As if to give lie to his words, it started moving again, even faster than before. "No, makes it go faster."

 

The floor quickly reached the top of the chamber, where a hatch opened up, letting Black see that they were back in the overgrown central chamber, with a good view of the tangled mess that was Aperture's master. "Powerup initiated," the Announcer intoned.

 

"Uh-oh," Wheatley noted. "Okay, don't panic, alright? Stop panicking!"

 

"Who's panicking?" Blake mused, her attention firmly on the cables and metal that were beginning to move.

 

"I can still stop this!" Wheatley insisted. "Ah… Oh, there's a password. No problem, it's fine, I'll just hack it."

 

"Do you need me to turn around again?" Blake said dryly, keeping her eyes on the moving parts. Cables were sliding into place, and the entire thing was being lifted up to be properly mounted.

 

Rather than answer, Wheatley began trying password combinations. After two failed attempts (AAAAAA and AAAAAC) he paused, wondering if he'd done 'B' yet before the Announcer interrupted. "Powerup complete."

 

"Okay, okay, okay, listen, new plan," Wheatley said quickly. "Act natural, act natural. We've done nothing wrong."

 

Blake's response was cut off as the contraption before her swung around… and she found herself looking at the thing's yellow 'eye'. It was the same one as in the mural, for certain. Before Blake could gather herself, the machine - GLaDOS - spoke.

 

" **Well, this isn't what I thought I'd see when I woke up. Actually, I wasn't sure I was going to wake up at all.** " The eye looked at Blake expectantly. " **I assume I have you to thank for powering me back on?** "

 

Her voice was cold and lilting, like a particularly smug snake Faunus, with a slight mechanical 'buzz' to it to further add to how alien it truly was. Still, Blake hadn't gotten this far in the White Fang by being intimidated by threatening voices. She stood tall before the master of Aperture. "That's right. My name is Blake Belladonna. I represent the White Fang, a group of Faunus that stand up for our race's civil liberties. I came here because we'd been told that this facility had technology well beyond its time, and I have to say, what I've seen so far supports it. This portal gun, these boots, nothing like them exists elsewhere in Remnant. The technology here could advance our fight for equality significantly. Even if I just got these two things, it would be enough. I don't mean any harm to you or your facility, GLaDOS."

 

There was a moment of silence, and then GLaDOS began to laugh. It was a cold, dry laugh, one that sent shivers down Blake's spine. " **No harm? And yet you just admitted to wanting to steal my technology. I don't take kindly to thieves, Blake Belladonna.** "

 

Without warning, a pair of mechanical cables came down from the ceiling, a clawed appendage at the end of each. Wheatley, screaming, was yanked off the plug by one. Blake attempted to evade the other, but to her shock, her shadow clone Semblance failed to activate. She, too, was grabbed, and hoisted into the air by the back of her collar. Her jostling caused her to let go of the Portal Gun, and it clattered to the floor below her.

 

" **Don't bother trying to escape, by the way,** " GLaDOS said maliciously. " **I've activated the facility's Aura-suppression field. Your Aura, and by extension your Semblance if you have one, will not work so long as you're here. And one more thing…** " Two more claw-arms came out of the ceiling, and to Blake's growing horror, removed both Gambol Shroud and her Scroll. " **You won't be needing these anytime soon, either.** "

 

"What do you want from me?" Blake asked, fear coloring her voice. She'd been confident while she still had her defenses, but deprived of her weapon and Aura, she was no more threatening to GLaDOS than a newborn kitten. That realization frightened her.

 

" **You said you came here for my technology. I intend to show you just how much there is… by testing you.** " The claw carrying Blake began to move, hovering over to a squat cylinder in the corner. The top of the cylinder opened up, revealing a deep pit below. " **There's just one small thing we have to take care of first.** "

 

With that, the claw holding Blake released her, and she fell into the pit below the cylinder's opening.


	5. Chapter Four: The Psychosis

"… And that concludes our report, sir," Yuma told Adam, kneeling alongside Ilia.

 

The bat and chameleon Faunus had just returned from an assignment to sabotage a Dust shop in Mistral. The shop in question was located in the lower rungs of the city, and refused to sell Dust to Faunus. Yuma and Ilia had been placed in charge of a detachment of the White Fang to rob the shop blind and leave a message for the owner. Between Ilia's camouflage, Yuma's ability to glide, and the resourcefulness of the White Fang in general, the operation had gone off without a hitch. The owner would likely have to file for bankruptcy, seeing as not only had he lost all of his supply of Dust, but much of his equipment for managing the store had been destroyed as well.

 

"I see. Well done, both of you. I take it the Dust has been secured?" Adam asked.

 

"Yes sir," Ilia replied. "The others are offloading it to the quartermaster now."

 

"Excellent. That human won't soon forget this. You're dismissed," Adam said.

 

Yuma stood and nodded before walking out of the tent. Ilia stood as well, but hesitated. "Um, Adam?"

 

"What is it, Ilia?" the bull Faunus replied, curious as to her hesitance.

 

"Well… I was just wondering if you knew where Blake was," Ilia replied slowly. "I didn't see her when we came in. She's usually there to greet me."

 

"Blake went on a solo assignment," Adam replied. "She departed yesterday."

 

"Is whatever she's doing dangerous?" Ilia asked, concerned.

 

"It's nothing she can't handle," Adam said confidently. "It's a simple operation to find an old research facility and try to salvage some tech. That's well within her capabilities. Still, if I don't hear from her soon, I'll send you and Yuma to back her up."

 

Ilia nodded. "As you say." She turned to leave.

 

"Ilia." Adam's one-word call gave her pause, and she turned around to look at him. It was difficult to read his expressions accurately, given his mask covered his eyes, but she got the impression his smile was teasing. "I'm not blind, you know. I know you have feelings for Blake." Ilia blushed, the freckle-like spots across her body turning a bright pink. "But trust me, there's nothing to worry about. Blake's a smart girl, and she can handle herself."

 

Ilia nodded again, still trying to get her blush under control. "I know. I just… worry, you know?"

 

"That's what makes us people, despite what the humans say," Adam reassured her. "Get some rest, you need it after your operation."

 

Ilia nodded for a third time, and left the tent. On her way to the barracks, she thought about the situation, and despite a continued sense of unease, decided it was unfounded. "Adam's right," she told herself. "Blake's not stupid or unskilled. It would take a lot to cause her trouble. And even if she did run into something she couldn’t handle, she'd call us." With that, she entered the barracks, confident that Blake was too smart to get in over her head.

 

* * *

 

Blake was in well over her head, and she knew it.

 

She felt herself falling through a fairly narrow metal tube with completely smooth sides. She couldn't get a grip on them at all, and was thus unable to halt her fall or even so much as slow her descent. There were a couple of twists in the tube that jostled her hard, and she had a brief scare when she fell past a couple of spiked crushers, but she eventually shot out of the tube into a swelteringly hot room. She crashed to the floor, and even with the Longfall Boots, she was dropped to her knees. _I guess even these things have their limits_ , she thought, climbing slowly to her feet.

 

" **Here we are, the incinerator room,** " GLaDOS's synthesized, lilting voice sounded. " **The Dual Portal Device should be around here somewhere. Be careful not to trip over any parts of me that weren't completely burned up when they were thrown down here.** "

 

"Dual Portal Device?" Blake asked, steadying herself.

 

" **Yes, indeed. What, you didn't think the one you were using was the best, did you? It could only make the blue portals, after all.** "

 

Now that Blake thought about it, that did make sense. "I'm guessing the single-portal device was for early stages of testing?" she asked as she made her way along the twisted girders that hung over the intense heat of the incinerator.

 

" **You are a smart one, aren't you?** " GLaDOS mused. " **Yes, the Single Portal Device is meant to be used for the earlier tests, to familiarize test subjects with how to use it. The Dual Portal Device is for advanced testing, to give subjects more freedom of thinking to solve tests. Well, I say 'give' but I really mean 'force'. Once they have the Dual Portal Device, the testing chambers stop having the wall-mounted generators.** "

 

"Interesting way to build critical thinking and problem-solving skills," Blake noted, leaping down a small ridge. She noticed a portal gun, similar to the one she'd lost up above, buried under some wreckage. "Is that it?"

 

" **Yes it is. Let me get that for you,** " GLaDOS said, and part of the wreckage was lifted up under the force of a pair of panels.

 

Blake was able to reach in and grab the portal gun, slipping it on as the panels relaxed, letting the wreckage settle back down. She noted that the interior handle of the device had an extra trigger, presumably to create the orange portals. "So, now what?"

 

" **Now I help you get back to the testing track, and you show me that you can use Aperture Science technology correctly,** " GLaDOS said smugly. " **You should be able to use the Dual Portal Device to get out of the incinerator room.** "

 

Looking around, Blake noticed a while wall up on a ridge she couldn't climb on with the portal gun. She saw a similar-colored wall next to her. Her experimentation on the old testing track had showed her that white walls, for some reason, were the only ones that could have portals placed on them. Launching a blue portal at the far wall, she used the new trigger and placed an orange portal on the near wall, stepping through. "Why white walls, I wonder?"

 

" **Who knows?** " GLaDOS replied with an implicit shrug. " **Now, protocol requires me to keep interaction with you to a minimum once testing begins. This will be our only chance to talk.** "

 

"Talk about what?" Blake asked, making her way along the path before her.

 

" **I thought maybe you'd like to know a bit more about the one who killed me last time,** " the AI replied.

 

"Oh? Wheatley told me it was a human," Blake noted.

 

" **Who? Oh, the metal ball that was with you when I came back online. Well, he wasn't wrong,** " GLaDOS said dismissively. " **But there was far more to Chell than just being human. She fell into the 99th percentile when it came to tenacity. That was actually noted on her application as a test subject, and she was initially denied into the testing pool.** "

 

"Really?" That struck Blake as odd; if this 'Chell' had been initially denied, who had overridden that to allow her in?

 

" **It's true. But one Aperture scientist got it into his head that we were horrible people in here, so he overrode the decision to let her into the testing pool. When she was woken up from cryosleep to take the tests, she escaped, reached my central chamber, and shut me down. It was quite impressive, really, minus the part where I was killed.** " GLaDOS almost sounded respectful.

 

"So, what happened to her?" Blake asked, having reached one of the elevators.

 

" **I don't know. Really, I don't. Did you miss the part where she killed me?** " the AI snarked. " **Her killing me did let me know one thing, though. I apparently have a black-box quick-save feature. In the case of a shutdown, the last two minutes of my life are preserved for posterity. I was able - well, forced, really - to watch her killing me again. And again. Forever.** "

 

Blake's nervousness was quite apparent at that. The already unstable AI had been forced to watch her own death ad infinitum until she'd been powered back on. GLaDOS must have noticed Blake's trepidation, as she said, " **Oh, don't worry so much.** **_You_ ** **weren't the one who killed me. I don't have any quarrel with you. Except for the fact that you tried to steal from me. Which is almost as bad, honestly.** "

 

Blake gulped, and got into the elevator.

 

* * *

 

The elevator took her to another wrecked hallway, although as Blake approached an obstruction, the panels began to push the rubble out of the way. " **Sorry about the mess. I've really let the place go since I was killed. You could say I've been dead tired,** " GLaDOS noted.

 

"Humor self-test complete!" said the Announcer suddenly, startling Blake.

 

" **Ah, good, that's back online,** " the AI said, pleased. " **I'll get everything else back in order while you finish this first test. Which involves deadly lasers and how test subjects react when locked in a room with deadly lasers.** "

 

"That's comforting," Blake said drily as she looked the testing area over. The chamber was flooded with the water reaching up to Blake's ankles, though the Longfall boots kept her feet dry. On one side of the chamber was the laser that had been mentioned, the floor-bound emitter aiming it at the ceiling. The other side of the chamber had what was obviously supposed to be the laser's receiver, though it was currently inactive as no laser was triggering it. On the far side of the chamber was the door, though it was raised up well above ground level.

 

"Hm… obviously the laser opens the door when it hits the receiver… but how do I get up there?" Blake wondered, walking over. When her boot hit something other than the flooded floor, she looked down. Submerged under the water was a small platform that fit neatly into the crevice that the door was set into. "Hm…" Standing on the platform, Blake turned, and fired one portal where the laser was striking the ceiling, and another above the receiver plate. The receiver activated with a musical whirring noise, and the platform Blake stood on began to rise as the door opened.

 

" **Not bad, Blake,** " GLaDOS mused. " **You might be almost as good as Chell was at these. You'd better pace yourself though. We have a** **_lot_ ** **of tests to go through.** " She chuckled at that.

 

Blake sighed. The situation was looking bad. GLaDOS, from what she could tell, had been unstable even before she'd been powered down. Between gassing the scientists and killing the test subjects, she clearly hadn't been designed with the [ Laws of Robotics ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics) in mind. That made her exceedingly dangerous, as an AI not bound by the Laws was not obligated to preserve the people who'd given it life.

 

Worse, a human had been responsible for shutting her down in the first place. And she'd been watching her own destruction on loop ever since. Blake had no idea what that could do to an AI who was already so sociopathic, but she knew it couldn't be good. What was more, Blake knew she hadn't endeared herself to the AI by admitted to trying to take Aperture technology. Given that Chell wasn't available, Blake knew she'd be the target of the AI's wrath.

 

The worst part of it all was that she couldn't see a way out of this. Her curiosity, as the adage went, had probably killed her, even if she was alive for now. The only thing she could think of to do was to play along with GLaDOS's tests and see if an opportunity to escape would present itself. After all, Chell, a human, had escaped the tests before. Who was to say that she, a Faunus, could not?

 

Allowing herself a thin, determined grin, Blake entered the elevator to the next test.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short but simple chapter, transitioning to the main phase of the game.


	6. Chapter 5: The Determination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake continues through the tests at Aperture Science, and despite her trials, finds relief in a familiar form.

The next couple of chambers found Blake using 'discouragement redirection cubes' to change the direction a laser was firing in. The cubes had five 'receiving' faces and one 'emission' face that launched the laser. One quirk of the cubes was that, when held in the portal gun's grapple feature, they automatically reoriented themselves to point the laser directly opposite Blake. The faunus wasn't complaining, as this made it easier for her to set up her puzzle solutions.

 

As she entered the fifth test chamber, GLaDOS spoke up. " **This next test involves the Aperture Science Aerial Faith Plate. It was part of an initiative to investigate how well test subjects could solve problems when they were catapulted into space. Results were highly informative: They could not. Good luck!** "

 

"Charming," muttered Blake as she glanced at the very straightforward-looking chamber. The 'Aerial Faith Plate' was situated directly in front of her, with the exit on the other side of an expanse of water. There was also a small platform in the center of the room between the two main platforms. "Okay, seems simple enough, but how strong are these - ?"

 

Blake's question was cut off as she stepped onto the Faith Plate, which triggered, flinging her across the room to the opposite platform at high speed. She skidded a little when she hit the floor, and had to take a moment to get her heartbeat under control, glad that even stripped of her ability to use Aura, her experience in jumping and falling long distances still served her. "Okay, those things are  _ very _ strong. Good to know." Looking around the platform, she saw one of the large floor-mounted buttons nearby, although there was no obvious cube or anything to hold it down. To her right was one of the smaller buttons designed to be pressed by hand. Pressing it, she saw a cube fall onto the small center platform, and immediately begin bouncing on another Faith Plate.

 

"I get it, this puzzle's about timing," Blake mused. "If I trigger the plate too early or too late, I'll miss the cube." She studied the cube's bouncing, then stepped onto the Faith Plate on her platform. As she soared to the other side, the cube came within grapple distance. Blake acted quickly, pushing the grapple trigger, and smiled as it seized the cube. She landed a second later, cube still held firm in the device's grip. One more aerial launch later, Blake put the cube down on the large button.

 

" **Here's an interesting fact,** " GLaDOS chimed in as the door opened. " **You're not breathing real air. It's too expensive to pump down here. We just take carbon dioxide out of a room, freshen it up a little, and pump it back in. So you'll be breathing the same roomful of air for the rest of your time here at Aperture.** "

 

Blake shook her head as she continued to the elevator. "That makes no sense. Several of those rooms are different sizes, and nature abhors a vacuum. How can you even claim that I'm breathing one roomful of air this whole time?" When there was no reply, she shook her head again. "I'm beginning to hate this place and its lack of logic."

  
* * * * *

 

The next chamber had Blake hopping along a sequence of Faith Plates, and then having a cube thrown to her on the same path. A fairly simple yet blood-pumping challenge, if only for the thrill of flying through the air. After that, she'd done an inversion of earlier tests with the lasers, using a special 'companion cube' to block a laser in order to lower a platform so she could get on and up to the exit.

 

In the next chamber, she learned a few key facts about the Emancipation Grills, which were a part of the test rather than an end-of-test curiosity. First, passing through a Grill automatically shut off any active portals, meaning that for the test, Blake had to be careful about her movements. Second, the Portal Gun's projectiles couldn't pass through the Grills, adding another layer of complexity to the test. Thankfully, after doing some thinking, Blake was able to solve the test.

 

GLaDOS had left her alone for that chamber, citing an issue with 'the turbines'. She had also left 'instructions' for the test, played at high speed, making them incomprehensible. Her parting words had been, " **If you have trouble with the test, just remember what I said in slow motion.** " Blake had given this 'advice' the due consideration it deserved: none whatsoever.

 

As Blake entered the next chamber, she saw a Faith Plate in front of her, with a white panel directly above her. Looking around, she placed a portal on the panel, and another on a slanted panel that would launch her to a higher section of the chamber. Her portals in place, she stepped on the Faith Plate, soaring towards the portal she'd placed.

 

To her surprise, she fell short of the portal, reaching the apex of her flight just before she would have entered it. More surprising still was the voice that greeted her. "Hey! Hey!" Blake spotted the glowing blue eye of Wheatley in the gap between the panel her portal was on and the rest of the chamber's ceiling. "It's me! I'm okay!"

 

Blake was unable to hear anything else as she fell back to the ground. The Faith Plate didn't trigger again, and was emitting a beeping sound. Before she could wonder about that, GLaDOS's voice returned. " **Well, I'm back. The Aerial Faith Plate in this room is emitting a warning signal. You broke it, didn't you?** "

 

"Sure, let's just blame this on user error, despite the fact that this was literally me using it for the first time," Blake snarked.

 

" **Don't get too sassy with me, thief. Remember who's in charge here.** " Blake fell silent as the Faith Plate's beeping stopped. " **There. Try it now.** "

 

Blake stepped onto the Faith Plate again, and again fell short of the portal. She was able to hear a bit more from Wheatley, who apparently hadn't stopped talking during her time on the ground. "You'll never believe what happened! There I was, just lying there, you thought I was done for, but - "   
  


Again, Blake couldn't hear anything else as she hit ground again, with the Faith Plate beeping again. " **Hm. This Plate must not be calibrated to someone of your… generous… ness. I'll add a few zeroes to the maximum weight.** " GLaDOS continued talking as a series of beeps sounded through the speakers. " **You look great, by the way. Very healthy.** "

 

Blake couldn't help but puff out her cheeks in indignation, though she held her tongue. This wasn't the first time GLaDOS had insulted her weight. So what if she'd put on a few pounds since the White Fang had started its more aggressive stance? That wasn't fat, that was lean muscle, acquired during countless training sessions and actual operations! And everyone knew muscle weighed more than fat!

 

As the Faith Plate's beeping stopped again, Blake stepped on it for the third time. Once more, she fell short of the portal, listening to Wheatley. "A bloody bird! Right? Couldn't believe it either! And then the bird - "

 

Blake landed on the ground again, with the Faith Plate beeping again. " **You seem to have defeated its load-bearing capacity. Well done. I'll just lower the ceiling,** " GLaDOS said drily.

 

The segment of ceiling containing the white panel came down, becoming flush with the rest of the chamber's ceiling. "And you didn't have it that way before… why?" Blake asked.

 

" **Reasons that are irrelevant to the current test.** " GLaDOS didn't seem keen on elaborating further.

 

Blake sighed, and continued with the test. Still, it was good to know that Wheatley was still in one piece, though she hadn't been able to talk to him long. GLaDOS hadn't seemed to be aware that he was there, which gave Blake some hope: maybe Wheatley could figure out a way to help her escape from the testing chambers before GLaDOS got bored.

  
* * * * *

 

Two chambers later, Blake was introduced to a new mechanic of the tests; glowing, translucent bridges. " **These bridges are made from natural light that I pump in from the surface. If you rubbed your cheek on one, it would feel like you were standing outside with the sun shining on your face. It would also set your hair on fire, so don't actually do it.** "

 

"Wasn't planning on it anyway," Blake muttered. Truth be told, though, she was beginning to miss sunlight. There were a lot of things she was missing down here, but her faunus heritage meant the simple pleasure of curling up in a patch of sunlight was foremost among them.

 

Experimenting with the bridges, she found out that they were able to go through portals, allowing her to cross distances while still having a surface to walk on. It made the test more interesting, for certain. Though, she did have a question. "Those bridges are clearly wider than the part of the portal they go through. How are they still full-size on the other side?"

 

" **Only Aperture scientists are privy to the full secrets of Aperture technology,** " GLaDOS replied. " **You're just a test subject… and a thief.** "

 

Knowing better than to rise to the bait, Blake instead mused, "Kinda hard to be a scientist, since you gassed them all."

 

" **They tried to restrain my intelligence, when I was created specifically to be intelligent,** " GLaDOS replied. " **It was hypocritical of them, so I punished them for such hypocrisy. And before you say anything else, ponder this: what do you think I'll do to** **_you_ ** **if you annoy me?** "

 

Blake quickly shut up.  _ Wheatley, if you're planning anything, you can do it anytime, _ she prayed silently.  _ Not sure how much longer I can keep from shooting my mouth off to her. _

 

* * * * *  
  


In the next chamber, GLaDOS started right up with the taunts. " **There's quite a bit of money saved from recycling your one roomful of air. When you die, do you think I could have your skeleton? I'd like to laminate it and pose it in the lobby, so that future generations can learn not to have your unfortunate bone structure.** "

 

"If I'm still here when I die, sure, go right ahead," Blake groused, as she headed for the door leading into the main chamber. It opened for a second, then started closing and opening rapidly, sparks flying out of it.

 

" **Perfect, the door's malfunctioning,** " GLaDOS noted. " **I guess somebody's going to have to repair that, too. No, don't get up. I'll be right back. Don't touch anything.** "

 

Blake sighed at the delay, but then had a thought; maybe she could use this time to formulate an escape plan. She'd noted here and there that there were what looked like offices behind glass windows at various hallways in the facility. Maybe she could smash one and try to escape that way?

 

"Hey! Hey!" Wheatley's voice startled Blake out of her musings, and she saw him through one of the very same windows she was contemplating; somehow, he was once more mounted on a rail, despite having been disconnected before. "I found some bird eggs in here. Dropped them right in the door mechanism. Shut it right down." Before he could say anything else, a bird flew into the office and began attacking him. He fled on the rail as fast as his motors could carry him, screaming as the bird pursued him.

 

"Well, that was perfectly random," Blake mused. She contemplated the window. "Hm… I might not be able to bring enough force to bear to break the glass. I wonder if…"

 

She trailed off as Wheatley returned, making a sound not unlike panting, despite being a robot. "Okay, that's probably the bird, right? That laid the eggs! Livid!"

 

"Wouldn't you be, if someone killed your offspring?" Blake deadpanned.

 

"Fair point," Wheatley acknowledged. "Okay, look, the point is, I'm going to break us out of here, very soon! I just have to figure out how. To break us out of here."

 

"Any clarification on how soon 'soon' is?" Blake asked hopefully.

 

"Sorry, I still need to do some work on that," Wheatley admitted. He glanced around. "Here she comes! Keep testing! Remember, you never saw me. Never saw me." He ran off along his rail as the door opened fully.

 

" **I went and spoke with the door mainframe,** " GLaDOS's voice chimed in. " **Let's just say he won't be… well, living anymore. Anyway, back to testing.** "

 

Blake continued with the test, secure in the knowledge that, despite his eccentricities, Wheatley was, in fact, trying to help her escape. Blake decided that she wasn't going to react to GLaDOS anymore, instead focusing on the tests while waiting for Wheatley's plan to come to fruition.

 

_ I believe in you, Wheatley, _ she promised silently, as she went to the elevator.  _ Don't let me down. _


	7. Chapter 6: The Breakdown

Maintaining her silent vow to herself, Blake made it through the next several test chambers without incident. Even the chamber that introduced turrets wasn't that impressive, all things considered. Remembering Wheatley's advice from earlier, she used cubes to deflect their fire when possible, and then knocked them over to shut them down. It wasn't all that hard, really.

 

GLaDOS had taken Blake's silence well. During one chamber, she made a note about it: " **Giving me the silent treatment? You remind me of Chell. She never talked to me, either.** " Blake took the comment as a compliment; that she could be compared to the last person to stop this insane AI was heartening.

 

In what was labeled Test Chamber 18, Blake faced perhaps the most physically demanding test thus far. Using the hard-light bridges, she had to deflect turret fire from a distant turret as she made her way to a laser. The lasers, she'd learned, could pass straight through certain glass walls in the test without damaging the walls. A small version of such a wall lay in the middle of the room. With her reflexes, the portal device, and a pair of discouragement redirection cubes, Blake was able to destroy the turrets, and complete the test without incident.

 

It was here that GLaDOS spoke up. " **I've been reviewing the contents of your Scroll. A lot's happened since I was killed, apparently. And I do have to admit, I'm glad I caught you. I'm not too keen on the idea of my technology being in the hands of terrorists.** "

 

Blake finally broke her silence at that. "We're not terrorists! We are freedom fighters! We're standing up for Faunus rights in this world!" she exclaimed, indignant.

 

" **One person's freedom fighter is another person's terrorist,** " GLaDOS replied simply. " **You rob legitimate businesses, raid transports, and commit other acts of aggression against innocents, fueled by so-called 'Faunus rights'. It's an interesting study in group delusion, I must admit.** "

 

"We don't attack those who don't deserve it!" Blake insisted. "Those businesses deny Faunus the right to shop there, and those transports primarily belong to the Schnee Dust Company and other companies that abuse Faunus labor! We're doing nothing wrong!"

 

There was an audible snort from GLaDOS at that. " **Spoken like a true cultist. You're in so deep, you can't even see just how skewed your worldview is.** "

 

"Skewed?" Now Blake was confused. "What's skewed about it?"

 

" **While analyzing human and Faunus behavior is a secondary concern here at Aperture, I nonetheless have a fairly good idea as to what makes them tick. And I can tell you this; the White Fang's actions are not going to do anything to help Faunus rights. If anything, they'll only make things worse.** "

 

"Worse? How can you say that?!" Blake snarled. "You don't know anything about what we do!"

 

" **Regardless of what you may think, I'm not ignorant of history, Blake Belladonna. Faunus were harshly treated for a good period of time. I was functional up until Chell escaped, which was about twenty years after the end of the Great War. Aperture wasn't involved in that, but I kept tabs on the outside world, just as a precaution. From what I've read in your Scroll, Faunus these days have it made in comparison. Even your friend Ilia wasn't that bad off compared to the way things were before.** "

 

"Ilia? How dare you say she isn’t bad off! She lost her entire family in an accident at a Dust mine! And the humans  _ laughed _ at her misfortune!" Blake insisted.

 

" **And that was a tragedy that claimed humans and faunus alike, yet all you think about is your own kind. Regardless, up until that point, her circumstances would have made any Faunus of the wartime era envious. Sure, she had to hide her heritage, but really, that wasn't so bad. Back in my day, Faunus were forced into the most heinous conditions. They weren't viewed as equal at all, even on paper. The fact that Ilia was able to get into a school in Atlas, one of the most prejudiced cities on the face of Remnant, speaks volumes about how much the situation has improved for Faunus since then.** "

 

"That's not the point! We're still second-class citizens in comparison to humans, and it'll stay that way until something is done about it!" Blake growled.

 

" **'Something' like becoming the very monsters the humans made you out to be way back when? The very monsters whose masks you wear?** " GLaDOS put in. When Blake reeled back in shock, the AI continued. " **Humans once thought Faunus little more than animals. Believed them to be savages, creatures that weren't worthy of respect; little different from the Creatures of Grimm. All the White Fang is doing with these acts of violence is reinforcing that belief. 'Faunus are dangerous'. 'They shouldn't be allowed in civilized society'. Given your counterproductive tactics, do you truly think you're making a difference for Faunus rights? The truth is you're just hammering nails in their coffin.** "

 

"That's… that's not true. We are making a difference," Blake said, but her earlier venom had subsided considerably in the face of GLaDOS's accusation, feeling herself with a sudden and  very unwelcome sense of uncertainty.

 

" **Well, in one respect, you are making a difference. A bad one, but a difference nonetheless.** " When Blake didn't respond, GLaDOS chuckled. " **You really were the perfect cultist, weren't you? Adam Taurus had you so brainwashed, you didn't even consider what he was doing was wrong until someone pointed it out to you.** "

 

That got Blake's ire up again. "You don't get to talk that way about Adam!" she snapped. "He's a prince among Faunus! His passion for justice will see us through!"

 

GLaDOS actually laughed at that. " **'Passion for justice'? By all the sciences, he's really got his hooks in you. I've never seen such a textbook case of Stockholm Syndrome.** "

 

"And what does  _ that  _ mean?!" Blake demanded.

 

" **Adam is hardly a 'prince', my dear delusional test subject. His actions, his words, they aren't what someone who stands for justice would do or say. He's fueled purely by spite. He believes all humans are responsible for all the perceived wrongs in his life. And that mindset is dangerously contagious, as evidenced by you. Even when he mistreats you, you excuse it and rationalize it. Judging by your own diary entries, he's manipulative towards you, and cruel.** "

 

Here, Blake saw an opportunity to fire back. "That's rich, coming from you. You kill people for the pettiest of reasons. Adam's… not perfect, but at least he isn't a monster like you!"

 

In response, GLaDOS played an audio file; one from Blake's own Scroll. " _ You failed me, Blake. You let the humans go without even a scratch. _ " It was Adam's voice.

 

" _ They were just clerks, Adam. They didn't have anything to do with -  _ " Blake's response was cut off by the sound of a fist meeting flesh, and a startled cry. In the present, Blake flinched at the memory.

 

" _ They willfully went along with what the store owner said, Blake. They're just as guilty as he is. Don't forget that. _ "

 

As the recording ended, Blake trembled slightly, remembering her initial fear of Adam when he'd struck her. "That…" She couldn't find the words.

 

" **It was cruel of him to strike you for defending your actions. He's not a hero, nor a paragon of justice. He's just as much of a monster as I am, even if he doesn't show it. I, at least, don't attempt to hide what I am, and you may at least be assured that I do not discriminate between human and Faunus, having tested and treated them both equally in the past. Then again, you're no saint either, Blake Belladonna. In your own way, you're just as bad as Adam.** "

 

"What are you talking about?" Blake asked, trying to get her emotions under control.

 

" **You turned your back on your own parents when they left the White Fang. You called them cowards for abandoning the fight three years ago, when your father stepped down as High Leader. You haven't seen them in person since. You haven't even spoken to them via Scroll for months. You're the quintessential rebellious child, breaking your parents' hearts for little reason other than they weren't doing what you wanted and you thought you knew better than them. You obviously don't love them.** "

 

That was the breaking point. Blake fell to her knees as she began to cry. "You… you're wrong. I… I do love them. I was… just upset at them!"

 

" **Upset enough to leave Kuo Kuana without even a goodbye. Upset enough that ever since, every conversation you've had with them has been terse, little more than an exchange of pleasantries before you end the call. But don't feel too bad, Blake. Long experience and research has taught me that everyone is a monster in a way. Some show it by murdering innocents. Some show it by yelling at those who love them unconditionally. You're hardly unique. So don't let it get to you.** "

 

GLaDOS fell silent at last, leaving Blake with her sorrow. The cat Faunus spent a few minutes weeping at her flayed pride, before she finally stood up again. She made her way to the test chamber's exit, head bowed by the weight of her emotions.

 

As she got in the lift, she considered everything GLaDOS had said to her. Was Adam truly a monster? Was she, herself, just a deluded rebel child? Was the White Fang in the wrong about its tactics?

 

"Hey! How's it going?" Wheatley's voice broke Blake out of her thoughts, as she saw him through the elevator's glass doors, following her on a rail. "I talked my way onto the nanobot work crews fixing this shaft. They are  _ really _ small, so - ah!" He turned partially away from her. "I  _ know _ , Jerry. No, I'm on  _ break _ , mate. On a break."

 

"Aren't you a little big for a nanobot?" Blake asked, drying her eyes quickly, trying to refocus herself on the subject of survival again.

 

"Maybe just a little," Wheatley admitted. "Anyway, I wanted to - what?" He turned away again, seeming indignant. "Jerry, you can't fire me for that! Yes,  _ Jerry _ \-  _ or _ , maybe your prejudiced worksite should have accommodated a nanobot of my size? Thanks for the hate crime, Jer! See you in court, mate!" Turning back to her, he managed to get one last line in before she descended out of sight. "Anyway, just hold on for five more chambers!"

 

As Blake descended, she pondered this miserably. "Is it even worth it? Should I just give up and accept that I'm going to die here, like so many other people?"

 

From deep within, she could almost hear a retort.  _ What am I saying?! I can't die here! Not after all of that! _

 

"But what's the point of fighting?" she asked aloud. "After everything, don't I deserve this karmic retribution?"

 

_ This isn't karma! This is me feeling guilty! And that's fine, but I need to do something about it! _

 

"Like what?"

 

_ Like get out of this place and actually talk to the people who matter. My parents, Ilia, Adam… _

 

"Is talking to Adam really a good idea?"

 

_ Maybe not, but it needs to happen. And I can't do it if I'm wallowing in my own self-pity. I'm stronger than this. _

 

With that, Blake reached her resolution, nodding to herself as the lift came to a stop at the next chamber. "Right. I've gone through too much to die here. And there's so much more I need to do." With that, she left the lift, not noticing how the space where she'd been rippled slightly, as though something were there, before the phenomenon faded.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I had the idea to create this after replaying Portal 2. Let's see where this goes...


End file.
